Trust in Colleges and Universities

What do the data show?

Trust in colleges and universities is plummeting and now sits below 40% support. We are also near the bottom of high-income countries and falling further. We rank just below Ukraine, Peru, and Romania.

What might explain these patterns?

Only the federal government and police have dropped as far as colleges and universities on this measure—and the decline here is much sharper. In 2015, higher education was among the most trusted institutions, just below local government. This earlier positive view likely reflects in part that people who have attended colleges and universities report positive views about their experiences. Graduates do very well in the labor force. We also have far more world-leading universities than any other country and students from other countries come to the US in large numbers to attend them.

However, in more recent years, that trust has plummeted, potentially because of concerns about the rising sticker price of college, increasing student debt, unfair admission practices, affirmative action, the liberal political leanings of faculty, and politically biased free speech rules. (Several of these are related to the increased scrutiny of diversity, equity, and inclusion statements and course requirements.) Campus protests have received particular attention in the past year, though these are too recent to be reflected in the data we are reporting.